To the home/remodeling gurus....

My brother is looking at putting an offer on a condo. It's nothing too crazy (1/1, about $100k), it's an old unit completely renovated. Anyways, on the seller's disclosure it said that the unit still has aluminum wiring. I think copper is the current standard, but how big of a deal is this? And if it is a big deal, how much would it cost to fix/convert? Or should this be a deal breaker?

Thanks in advance

if you can put in a new outlet/switch it is no biggie. i just mitigated my entrie house. cost me about 500 in parts and three weekends and two cases of beer. I can get you links for the stuff i bought but basically you just have to buy special switches and outlets. for the fixtures there are special wirenuts you need to get. it was a lot easier then i expected. ask the sellers for 4 or 5k because you are going to have the electrician fix this fire hazzard. do it yourelf and bank the difference for other stuff that will pop up. feel free to pm with any questions.

aluminum has a greater tendency to expand/contract over use/time. This will cause airgaps under locking nuts over time and this causes greater heat and resistance, this can cause breakers to pop under load. I experienced this in our home as the cheap ass builders used aluminum to our oven and after a few years, the damn thing would start popping the breaker after being on for more tham 15-20 minutes. I had no clue, fortunately my dad knew what to do, just tripped the breakers, slather in some special goop in the receptacle and on the ends of the aluminum wires, tighten everything back up and we're back in business. This happened after about 5-6 years in the home, did it once, we're at 9 years now. I imagine at some point I'll have to go back through the panel and tighten everything down in a few years again, takes about an hour vs. trying to get all the aluminum replaced by copper. I'll put in the hour and call it a day.